Nomination - National Park Service

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NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BALTUSROL GOLF CLUB Page 20 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 8. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Certifying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: Nationally: X Statewide: Locally: Applicable National Register Criteria: A B C D X Criteria Considerations (Exceptions): A B C D E F G NHL Criteria: 4 NHL Theme(s): Areas of Significance: III. Expressing Cultural Values Landscape Architecture Period(s) of Significance: 1918 – 1936 Significant Dates: 1918 – 1924: Design and construction of golf courses Significant Person(s): Cultural Affiliation: Architect/Builder: Historic Contexts: A. W. Tillinghast, Golf Course Architect, Course Chester H. Kirk, Architect, Clubhouse XVII. Landscape Architecture
NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BALTUSROL GOLF CLUB Page 21 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form State Significance of Property, and Justify Criteria, Criteria Considerations, and Areas and Periods of Significance Noted Above. Introduction Baltusrol Golf Club is significant under National Historic Landmark Criterion 4, and Theme III, Expressing Cultural Values, for its importance in Landscape Architecture. Baltusrol Golf Club is nationally significant for its two 18-hole golf courses, the Upper and the Lower, which comprise arguably the most important and influential design of leading early-twentieth-century golf course architect Albert W. Tillinghast (1874 – 1942). Tillinghast was one of the first American golf architects to integrate the golf course into nature, and one of the primary developers of the strategic as opposed to the penal golf course. Baltusrol’s period of significance is 1918 to 1936, beginning with Tillinghast’s personal involvement with the construction of the 36-hole Upper and Lower courses, and concluding with his final involvement in fine-tuning the courses before he left the independent practice of golf course architecture for a position with the Professional Golf Association of America (PGA) and eventual retirement from design. The design and creation of Tillinghast’s Baltusrol marks the height of the Golden Age of golf course design. Tillinghast was one of the first Americans to become a prominent golf course architect, following the early phase of the increasingly-popular sport when the golf course design business in this country was dominated by practitioners from Great Britain. Tillinghast, who became obsessed with golf as a young man, concentrated his considerable natural talents to participate in all aspects of the sport: in addition to his golf course design, he pursued golf photography and was an accomplished amateur player. Most pertinently, he wrote extensively about golf course design, espousing and explaining the design concepts that are manifest in his constructed courses. Tillinghast was one of the most celebrated and sought-after architects during the 1920s, the period that has become known as the Golden Age of golf course architecture. Cornish and Whitten, in their encyclopedic work The Architects of Golf, write: “There are those who say that, in his time, Tillinghast was indeed the best. He was not as prolific as many of his contemporaries, nor did he ever build a breathtaking course on dramatic terrain. But, they agree, his courses have endured the test of time. A look at his list of accomplishments lends support to that view. Among his best known works are the Upper and Lower Courses at Baltusrol, the East and West Courses at Winged Foot…and the Black Course at Bethpage…” 31 Baltusrol Golf Club is nationally significant for being a seminal and wide-ranging manifestation of Tillinghast’s design concepts. It was the most important of his commissions as a designer; it immediately made his national reputation and marked a turning point in his career. Baltusrol gave him the opportunity to explore and develop his theories of strategic design and “the course beautiful” over a natural landscape that offered a wide range of conditions, from the relatively flat ground of the Lower Course to the rolling terrain of the Upper Course. Baltusrol was already an important golf venue; the course hosted two United States Opens and three other USGA championships before Tillinghast was hired. As an up and coming course designer, an American golf course architect in a profession dominated by Scotsmen, “Tillinghast stood more to gain from Baltusrol than Baltusrol stood to gain from Tillinghast.” 32 Baltusrol is noted for Tillinghast’s extensive hands-on involvement with the construction of the course. He spent many days on site over a period of four years, and personally supervised the grading of the contours, an involvement that he was not able to duplicate to the same extent at subsequent commissions as his work gained in popularity and demands on his time increased. Both because of his personal involvement with Baltusrol, the 31 Geoffrey S. Cornish and Ronald E. Whitten, The Architects of Golf, New York, NJ: HarperCollins, 1993, p. 64. Cornish and Whitten are both golf course architects, with stellar reputations in their own right. 32 Tillinghast, A. W., The Course Beautiful, Tree Wolf Publications, 1995, p. 7 (a collection of Tillinghast’s articles for various golf magazines).
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Nomination - National Park Service

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